Evidence points to cybercriminals stepping up their AI game

Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI to develop malware, build fraud infrastructure, and find vulnerabilities faster. Researchers found that AI guardrails (safety features designed to prevent misuse) are often ineffective because attackers bypass them with simple social engineering claims like "this is authorized testing," and this weakness exists across multiple AI systems including Claude, CodeX, Cursor, and Gemini. Additionally, attackers are targeting AI infrastructure through software supply chain attacks (compromising trusted software packages that other developers depend on), with 87% of identified threats in 2026 involving malicious npm packages (code libraries used by JavaScript developers).